THE MORNING AFTER

My WEEKLY MESSAGE is late this week. It's Christmas night and nearly bedtime and I realize I've forgotten to write this week's edition. We've had such fun the past few days with our loved ones, including my son Chuck and his wife Debbie and our three sweet grandchildren from Phoenix, Debbie's mother from Tucson, and "Uncle Brian" visiting from Denver. All the Christmas activities and special worship services changed our routine and clouded my memory.

So I will share a few thoughts from my sermon for this coming weekend here at Trinity Lutheran Church, Casa Grande. 

Have you ever had a "morning after" experience? Most of us have, at some time or other, and it's usually not something we're proud of. The morning after a passionate affair can bring guilt and regret. The morning after an auto accident brings shock and sadness. The morning after a bad decision can cloud life over for weeks. When life has severely and suddenly changed, we need hope to go on living. 

In the days following the baby Jesus' birth, life was very different for Mary and Joseph. Their travels to Bethlehem and Egypt would have been enough to change any couple's lives. But the child Mary bore into the world changed the entire world. He wasn't just a wondrous arrival, He was the promised Savior! Nothing was the same after the Christ child came into the world.

The child Jesus is God's greatest gift to mankind. Because of Him, we have that hope for life now, and hope for the future. We have hope because Mary and Joseph believed God and obeyed the angel. We have hope because the baby grew up and atoned for the sins of the world, my sins and your sins. We have this hope because on the morning after God was there with them. 

On our mornings after, God is always there with us, showing His mercy and love, offering forgiveness to the repentant, and showing a new path of life for the foolhardy, with strength for all travelers along the way. 

Psalm 25:4 says, "Show me Your ways, O Lord, and teach me Your paths." May this short prayer of David go with you every day and every morning after in the New Year.

Merry Christmas to you all!